The Da Vinci Code 达芬奇密码

We've got to get off the road, Langdon thought.

我们必须离开这条路，兰登寻思道。

He could barely even see where they were headed. The truck's lone working headlight had beenknocked off-center and was casting a skewed sidelong beam into the woods beside the countryhighway. Apparently the armor in this "armored truck" referred only to the cargo hold and not thefront end.

Sophie sat in the passenger seat, staring blankly at the rosewood box on her lap.

索菲坐在乘客席上，面无表情地看着膝上的木盒。

"Are you okay?" Langdon asked.

"你没事吧？"兰登问道。

Sophie looked shaken. "Do you believe him?""

索菲看起来有些动摇："你相信他么？"

About the three additional murders? Absolutely. It answers a lot of questions—the issue of yourgrandfather's desperation to pass on the keystone, as well as the intensity with which Fache ishunting me.""No, I meant about Vernet trying to protect his bank.

Langdon had not even considered it. "How would he even know what this box contains?""

兰登根本没有考虑这个问题："他怎么可能知道这盒子里装的到底是什么呢？"

His bank stored it. He knew my grandfather. Maybe he knew things. He might have decided hewanted the Grail for himself."Langdon shook his head. Vernet hardly seemed the type. "In my experience, there are only tworeasons people seek the Grail. Either they are naive and believe they are searching for the long-lostCup of Christ...""Or?""Or they know the truth and are threatened by it. Many groups throughout history have sought todestroy the Grail."The silence between them accentuated the sound of the scraping bumper. They had driven a fewkilometers now, and as Langdon watched the cascade of sparks coming off the front of the truck,he wondered if it was dangerous. Either way, if they passed another car, it would certainly drawattention. Langdon made up his mind.

As Langdon walked toward the front of the truck, he felt surprisingly alert. Staring into the barrelof yet another gun tonight had given him a second wind. He took a deep breath of nighttime air andtried to get his wits about him. Accompanying the gravity of being a hunted man, Langdon wasstarting to feel the ponderous weight of responsibility, the prospect that he and Sophie mightactually be holding an encrypted set of directions to one of the most enduring mysteries of all time.

"我下去看看能不能把保险杠扳回原位。"

As if this burden were not great enough, Langdon now realized that any possibility of finding away to return the keystone to the Priory had just evaporated. News of the three additional murdershad dire implications. The Priory has been infiltrated. They are compromised. The brotherhoodwas obviously being watched, or there was a mole within the ranks. It seemed to explain whySaunière might have transferred the keystone to Sophie and Langdon—people outside thebrotherhood, people he knew were not compromised. We can't very well give the keystone back tothe brotherhood. Even if Langdon had any idea how to find a Priory member, chances were goodthat whoever stepped forward to take the keystone could be the enemy himself. For the moment, atleast, it seemed the keystone was in Sophie and Langdon's hands, whether they wanted it or not.

他把车靠边，开进一个车站。

The truck's front end looked worse than Langdon had imagined. The left headlight was gone, andthe right one looked like an eyeball dangling from its socket. Langdon straightened it, and itdislodged again. The only good news was that the front bumper had been torn almost clean off.

噪音终于消失了。

Langdon gave it a hard kick and sensed he might be able to break it off entirely.

My grandfather left me a phone message, Sophie had told him. He said he needed to tell me thetruth about my family. At the time it had meant nothing, but now, knowing the Priory of Sion wasinvolved, Langdon felt a startling new possibility emerge.

The bumper broke off suddenly with a crash. Langdon paused to catch his breath. At least the truckwould no longer look like a Fourth of July sparkler. He grabbed the bumper and began dragging itout of sight into the woods, wondering where they should go next. They had no idea how to openthe cryptex, or why Saunière had given it to them. Unfortunately, their survival tonight seemed todepend on getting answers to those very questions.

In the world of the Holy Grail and the Priory of Sion, that meant only one man. The challenge, ofcourse, would be selling the idea to Sophie.

兰登想道：我们需要专业的帮助。

Inside the armored car, while Sophie waited for Langdon to return, she could feel the weight of therosewood box on her lap and resented it. Why did my grandfather give this to me? She had not theslightest idea what to do with it.

在圣杯与郇山隐修会的研究领域，只有一个人可以帮上这个忙了。当然，最麻烦的问题是首先必须要说服索菲。

Think, Sophie! Use your head. Grand-père is trying to tell you something!

索菲呆在货舱里等着兰登，她感到膝盖上的紫檀木盒子沉沉的，对它心生厌恶。为什么祖父要给我这个？她百思不得其解。

Opening the box, she eyed the cryptex's dials. A proof of merit. She could feel her grandfather'shand at work. The keystone is a map that can be followed only by the worthy. It sounded like hergrandfather to the core.

思考，索菲！动动脑筋。祖父想告诉你什么？

Lifting the cryptex out of the box, Sophie ran her fingers over the dials. Five letters. She rotated thedials one by one. The mechanism moved smoothly. She aligned the disks such that her chosenletters lined up between the cryptex's two brass alignment arrows on either end of the cylinder. Thedials now spelled a five-letter word that Sophie knew was absurdly obvious.

索菲打开盒子，取出密码筒，仔细端详。她甚至可以感触到祖父制作密码筒的双手。

G-R-A-I-L.

楔石是一个只有杰出的人才能读懂的地图。祖父就是那样一个"杰出的人"。

Gently, she held the two ends of the cylinder and pulled, applying pressure slowly. The cryptexdidn't budge. She heard the vinegar inside gurgle and stopped pulling. Then she tried again.

索菲抚摸着转筒。五个字母。石盘在她手中流畅地转动着。她把五个字母对准了石筒两端的铜箭头。这一举动看似荒谬，那五个字母组成了一个单词。

V-I-N-C-IAgain, no movement.

G-R-A-I-L.

V-O-U-T-ENothing. The cryptex remained locked solid.

她轻轻地抓着圆柱体的两端往外拉。密码筒一动不动。她听见筒内响起醋的流动声，于是停了下来。她又试了一次。

Frowning, she replaced it in the rosewood box and closed the lid. Looking outside at Langdon,Sophie felt grateful he was with her tonight. P.S. Find Robert Langdon. Her grandfather's rationalefor including him was now clear. Sophie was not equipped to understand her grandfather'sintentions, and so he had assigned Robert Langdon as her guide. A tutor to oversee her education.

V-I-N-C-I.

Unfortunately for Langdon, he had turned out to be far more than a tutor tonight. He had becomethe target of Bezu Fache... and some unseen force intent on possessing the Holy Grail.

还是没有动静。

Whatever the Grail turns out to be.

V-O-U-T-E.

Sophie wondered if finding out was worth her life.

密码筒依旧紧锁。

As the armored truck accelerated again, Langdon was pleased how much more smoothly it drove.

"Do you know how to get to Versailles?"Sophie eyed him. "Sightseeing?""No, I have a plan. There's a religious historian I know who lives near Versailles. I can't rememberexactly where, but we can look it up. I've been to his estate a few times. His name is LeighTeabing. He's a former British Royal Historian.""And he lives in Paris?""Teabing's life passion is the Grail. When whisperings of the Priory keystone surfaced about fifteenyears ago, he moved to France to search churches in hopes of finding it. He's written some bookson the keystone and the Grail. He may be able to help us figure out how to open it and what to dowith it."Sophie's eyes were wary. "Can you trust him?""Trust him to what? Not steal the information?""And not to turn us in.""I don't intend to tell him we're wanted by the police. I'm hoping he'll take us in until we can sortall this out.""Robert, has it occurred to you that every television in France is probably getting ready tobroadcast our pictures? Bezu Fache always uses the media to his advantage. He'll make itimpossible for us to move around without being recognized."Terrific, Langdon thought. My French TV debut will be on "Paris's Most Wanted." At least JonasFaukman would be pleased; every time Langdon made the news, his book sales jumped.

圣杯到底是什么？

"Is this man a good enough friend?" Sophie asked.

索菲怀疑最终的发现是否值得他们牺牲性命。

Langdon doubted Teabing was someone who watched television, especially at this hour, but stillthe question deserved consideration. Instinct told Langdon that Teabing would be totallytrustworthy. An ideal safe harbor. Considering the circumstances, Teabing would probably tripover himself to help them as much as possible. Not only did he owe Langdon a favor, but Teabingwas a Grail researcher, and Sophie claimed her grandfather was the actual Grand Master of thePriory of Sion. If Teabing heard that, he would salivate at the thought of helping them figure thisout.

装甲车再次上路了。兰登觉得心情舒畅，因为驾驶变得轻松多了。"你认识去凡尔赛的路吗？"

"Teabing could be a powerful ally," Langdon said. Depending on how much you want to tell him.

索菲看着他："观光？"

"Fache probably will be offering a monetary reward."Langdon laughed. "Believe me, money is the last thing this guy needs." Leigh Teabing waswealthy in the way small countries were wealthy. A descendant of Britain's First Duke ofLancaster, Teabing had gotten his money the old-fashioned way—he'd inherited it. His estateoutside of Paris was a seventeenth-century palace with two private lakes.

Teabing had approached the BBC with a proposal for a historical documentary in which he wouldexpose the explosive history of the Holy Grail to a mainstream television audience. The BBCproducers loved Teabing's hot premise, his research, and his credentials, but they had concerns thatthe concept was so shocking and hard to swallow that the network might end up tarnishing itsreputation for quality journalism. At Teabing's suggestion, the BBC solved its credibility fears bysoliciting three cameos from respected historians from around the world, all of whom corroboratedthe stunning nature of the Holy Grail secret with their own research.

"相信他什么？不会盗窃信息？"

Langdon had been among those chosen.

"而且不会把我们交出去。"

The BBC had flown Langdon to Teabing's Paris estate for the filming. He sat before cameras inTeabing's opulent drawing room and shared his story, admitting his initial skepticism on hearing ofthe alternate Holy Grail story, then describing how years of research had persuaded him that thestory was true. Finally, Langdon offered some of his own research—a series of symbologicconnections that strongly supported the seemingly controversial claims.

"我并不打算告诉他我们正被警方通缉。我希望他会收留我们直到真相大白。"

When the program aired in Britain, despite its ensemble cast and well-documented evidence, thepremise rubbed so hard against the grain of popular Christian thought that it instantly confronted afirestorm of hostility. It never aired in the States, but the repercussions echoed across the Atlantic.

Shortly afterward, Langdon received a postcard from an old friend—the Catholic Bishop ofPhiladelphia. The card simply read: Et tu, Robert?

"他真的是靠得住的朋友吗？"索菲问。

"Robert," Sophie asked, "you're certain we can trust this man?""Absolutely. We're colleagues, he doesn't need money, and I happen to know he despises theFrench authorities. The French government taxes him at absurd rates because he bought a historiclandmark. He'll be in no hurry to cooperate with Fache."Sophie stared out at the dark roadway. "If we go to him, how much do you want to tell him?"Langdon looked unconcerned. "Believe me, Leigh Teabing knows more about the Priory of Sionand the Holy Grail than anyone on earth."Sophie eyed him. "More than my grandfather?""I meant more than anyone outside the brotherhood.""How do you know Teabing isn't a member of the brotherhood?""Teabing has spent his life trying to broadcast the truth about the Holy Grail. The Priory's oath is tokeep its true nature hidden.""Sounds to me like a conflict of interest."Langdon understood her concerns. Saunière had given the cryptex directly to Sophie, and althoughshe didn't know what it contained or what she was supposed to do with it, she was hesitant toinvolve a total stranger. Considering the information potentially enclosed, the instinct was probablya good one. "We don't need to tell Teabing about the keystone immediately. Or at all, even. Hishouse will give us a place to hide and think, and maybe when we talk to him about the Grail, you'llstart to have an idea why your grandfather gave this to you.""Us," Sophie reminded.

Langdon felt a humble pride and wondered yet again why Saunière had included him.

"提彬将会是一个有力的盟友。"兰登说。"不过，这还要看你打算告诉他多少实情。"

"Do you know more or less where Mr. Teabing lives?" Sophie asked.

"法希很可能会悬赏。"

"His estate is called Chateau Villette."Sophie turned with an incredulous look. "The Chateau Villette?""That's the one.""Nice friends.""You know the estate?""I've passed it. It's in the castle district. Twenty minutes from here."Langdon frowned. "That far?""Yes, which will give you enough time to tell me what the Holy Grail really is."Langdon paused. "I'll tell you at Teabing's. He and I specialize in different areas of the legend, sobetween the two of us, you'll get the full story." Langdon smiled. "Besides, the Grail has beenTeabing's life, and hearing the story of the Holy Grail from Leigh Teabing will be like hearing thetheory of relativity from Einstein himself.""Let's hope Leigh doesn't mind late-night visitors.""For the record, it's Sir Leigh." Langdon had made that mistake only once. "Teabing is quite acharacter. He was knighted by the Queen several years back after composing an extensive historyon the House of York."Sophie looked over. "You're kidding, right? We're going to visit a knight?"Langdon gave an awkward smile. "We're on a Grail quest, Sophie. Who better to help us than aknight?"